U.S. Space-Launch Vehicle Technology: Viking to Space Shuttle

Notes

Notes Notes are in shortened format, with full information provided in the list of sources. Archival and private sources are identified by an abbreviation at the end of the citation denoting the repository, such as NHRC for the NASA Historical Reference Collection or NASM for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; these abbreviations are given at the head of the Archival and Private Sources section of the list of sources. Oral history interviews, denoted OHI, are also listed in this section. All other cited works, without such a repository abbreviation, are listed under Published Sources. Preface 1. The two books are being published simultaneously by the University Press of Florida. Introduction 1. Tatarewicz, “Telescope Servicing Mission” (quotations, 392, 365); Bilstein, Testing Aircraft, Exploring Space, 156–57; Crouch, Aiming for the Stars, 278–79; Launius, NASA, 126. 2. See Layton, “Mirror-Image Twins,” 562–63, 565, 575–76, 578, 580; Layton, “Technology as Knowledge,” 40; Layton, “Presidential Address,” 602, 605; Vincenti, What Engineers Know, 4, 6–7, 161; Ferguson, Mind’s Eye, xi, 1, 3, 9, 12, 194. Of course, there are many ways in which science and engineering overlap, as emphasized in Latour, Science in Action, 107, 130–31, 174, and by Layton himself as quoted in Bijker, Hughes, and Pinch, Social Construction of Technological Systems, 20. 3. Simmons, résumé, n.d., and e-mail messages, July 15, 2002 (quotations), UP. Actually , black powder has probably been known since before 1100. 4. Even people who know better often refer to liquid- or solid-fuel rockets. But the liquids or solids in question include not just fuel but an oxidizer. This is what distinguishes rockets from jet engines; jets use oxygen from the atmosphere to combine with their fuel and permit combustion, while rockets carry their own oxidizer. Hence, the proper terminology is liquid- or solid-propellant rockets. 338 5. Incidentally, the proper technical designation of liquid-propellant combustion systems is engines, while their solid-propellant counterparts are called motors. 6. This section is based on far too many sources to cite here. One source that covers much the same material in language comprehensible to nonexperts is NASA Education Division, Rockets, 12–18. Guidance involves selection of a maneuvering sequence to move a rocket from a particular location and direction along its trajectory to the place and attitude needed to carry it to its destination; control executes the maneuvers dictated by the guidance function. See Haeussermann, “Guidance and Control,” 225. Chapter 1. Viking and Vanguard, 1945–1959 1. See Hall, “Vanguard and Explorer,” 101–4; Hall, “Earth Satellites,” 111; and sources cited in this chapter. 2. Biographical information on Rosen is from his official NASA biography, February 6, 1962, in “Rosen, Milton W.,” NHRC. 3. Ibid.; Rosen, OHI; Rosen, Viking, 18–20. The Pendray book Rosen mentioned was The Coming Age of Rocket Power (1945), which Rosen described as “a proposal that rockets be used for exploring the upper atmosphere” (18). On NRL, the first quotation is from a pamphlet with the NRL seal on its cover and “1923–1973” inscribed inside, in “Naval Research Laboratory,” folder 012164, NHRC; the others are from Hevly, “Tools of Science,” 221–22. 4. Rosen, OHI, 29–30 (quotation, 30); Rosen, Viking, 20–21. 5. Rosen, OHI, 31; Rosen, Viking, 22–23, 66 (quotation). Here and below in this chapter I have made corrections based on comments by Rosen written and telephoned in May 2002. 6. Rosen, Viking, 26; Rosen, OHI, 31. 7. Rosen, Viking, 26–27; Martin, “Design Summary,” 5, NASM. 8. See Hunley, Preludes, 153. 9. Rosen, OHI, 38–40; Rosen, Viking, 27–28; Rosen, comments, UP. On Anderson, see Goodstein, Millikan’s School, 105–7, 252, 271. 10. Rosen, OHI, 44, 52–53; Rosen, Viking, 28, 64; Martin, “Design Summary,” 36–37, NASM; Harwood, Raise Heaven and Earth, 256; Rosen, comments, UP. 11. Harwood, Raise Heaven and Earth, 253; Martin, “Design Summary,” 5, 6, 99, NASM. For V-2’s alcohol percentage, see Hunley, Preludes, chap. 2; for hydrogen peroxide concentration, Kennedy, Vengeance Weapon 2, 77; Rosen, comments, UP. 12. Rosen, Viking, 58–62, 236–37; Winter and Ordway, “Pioneering Commercial Rocketry,” 162–63; Martin, “Design Summary,” 104–10, NASM; Scala, “Viking Rocket,” 34, which contains a handy launch chronology; Rosen, comments, UP (quotation). 13. For Rosen’s claim, see his OHI, 44. On Bossart’s relationship to swiveling, J. Neufeld, Ballistic Missiles, 47, says the Germans (meaning the von Braun group) first conceived the idea and discarded it but...